Starting
in April 2006, he worked as a developer in the National Security
Agency's Tailored Access Operations unit, which is involved in cyber
operations.

The
charges carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, followed by
three years of supervised release, but prosecutors are recommending he
serve eight years, according to his attorney, Robert Bonsib.

The
New York Times quoted unnamed government officials as saying Pho took
the classified material home to assist him in reworking his resume. The
officials told the newspaper that Pho's home computer was using
antivirus software made by Kaspersky Lab, a top Russian software
company, and that Russian hackers are thought to have exploited the
software to steal the documents.

Bonsib declined to answer questions about Kaspersky.

The
guilty plea was announced by Stephen Schenning, acting U.S. attorney
for the District of Maryland; Dana Boente, acting assistant attorney
general for national security; and Gordon Johnson, special agent in
charge of the FBI's Baltimore Field Office.

NSA
has suffered a series of setbacks in recent years. Most notably, former
NSA contractor Edward Snowden disclosed a cache of classified material
in 2013 exposing U.S. government surveillance programs.

Reality
Winner, 25, a former Air Force linguist who worked as an NSA contractor
at a facility in Augusta, Georgia, was charged in June with copying a
classified U.S. report and mailing it to a news organization."